First Lesson in Showmanship
by l0rdenglish
Summary: The Beta kids decide to buy Sburb, a new game that had just recently been released at the suggestion of Rose Lalonde, their group leader. AU!Homestuck, MMOStuck. Rated T for language/moderate violence.
1. KNITTED DEATH

You are **THE GIRL**. You have a minor fondness for **WIZARDS** and **KNITTING**, but NO TIME to actually pay attention to any of that silly mumbo jumbo at the moment. You are currently preparing for **THE GAME**, but none of your **THREE FRIENDS** are logged onto **PESTERCHUM**. Oh, no, no, wait. You look closer at your laptop computer screen, adorned with a self-knitted laptop skin, and see that one of your friends is indeed online. The urgency of today doesn't seem as realized as it was yesterday, however, when this friend messages you.

- ectoBiologist [EB] began pestering tentacleTherapist [TT] -  
EB: oh there you are!  
EB: hey!  
TT: Thought you wouldn't be getting on. It's almost three in the afternoon. Did you forget?  
EB: forget?  
EB: what did i forget?  
TT: Don't you remember Sburb?  
EB: oh. oh yeah. sburb.  
TT: Don't tell me.  
EB: don't tell you what?  
TT: You lost your server set and you're feigning forgetfulness to make me believe that you actually forgot about the game when in actuality you simply misplaced your set.  
EB: it's possible.  
TT: Find your set and message me later. Also, do you have any idea where Jade and Dave are?  
EB: jade's probably sleeping again. don't know about dave, but no one ever knows about dave. that's all there is to say about those two.  
TT: Alright. Tell Jade to install her set and find yours.  
- ectoBiologist [EB] ceased pestering tentacleTherapist [TT] -

You glide your nimble, pale fingers away from the keyboard on the laptop and take a look around your room. The **GAME SET** sits a few feet away from you; from your current perspective, it seems as if the game set is light years away instead of mere feet and you are too lazy to get up from your current position to grab it. From here, you can make out the contents of the game set: **A PAIR OF GOGGLES**, **A DISK**, and **A PAIR OF GLOVES**. Everything seems a little too virtual reality for you, but you knew that you had to be one of the first people to try out this new game. **GAMING WITH FRIENDS** was always one of your hobbies and a group like yours made everything more interesting. **SBURB** is the game that the four of you were planning on playing together. It had recently been promoted as a very unique game and, like online games usually did, it piqued your interest. Still, it took a little while to convince them to buy the Sburb set that they needed to play.

You grab the entire set after moving towards it and sit back down at your laptop. Because you're so forward about everything, you have already installed Sburb onto your computer. In fact, you've had the game on your laptop for a forgotten number of days just waiting to be able to finally play it. Maybe, however, a peak at the game's character creation wouldn't hurt? You slip on the goggles and the gloves, turning them on after connecting them to the side of your laptop. For the first few minutes, all you see is white. The next thing that you see is yourself in the mirror, stripped down to mere underwear. A character selection screen shows that the game has, somehow, scanned your general appearance and used it for the character in this game. You scroll up the character selection list with your gloves and press the character create button. Still seeing yourself in the mirror, the interface changes a bit and reveals some of the many classes. Among the many classes, you see a couple that might apply to you. **SPIRIT DANCER** , **BLACK SORCERESS** , and **ABSTRACT PUNDIT** appeal to your general personality, but something seems amiss. A button at the bottom of the interface yields more options. White letters against the black button read out **"FOR A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE, CLICK HERE"** . And, of course, you click the button and a couple of words splay out on screen.

The words **KNITTED DEATH** splay onto your screen. In a moment, your character is instantly created. The interface disappears and all you can see, again, is white, before you feel your body being transported into another realm.


	2. ELICIT

Your physical body feels a bit different than before all you could see was white. Everything feels distant as if you are having an out of body experience. While in this state, you feel as if you are no longer connected to your body. You are aware that while you are moving beyond the goggles and the gloves, you can no longer feel what you are touching and what you are moving. You are simply subconsciously aware of your surroundings. The nonexistent realm of virtuality comes into view yet again as the white fades and your small body slowly appears into a realm that is not your own. Words that briefly appear above you indicate that you are at **THE CORE**, which could possibly identify as the root town of the game if it weren't for the fact that there was no one in your realm of sight. Instead, what you could see was shrouded. You seem to be in a never ending, further expanding room draped by shadows and black tiles on every wall, on the floor, and on the ceiling. The only things that you can make out in front of you are those black tiles. Your curiosity presses you a bit forward until the shadows begin to disappear and you find yourself at a single pedestal. On the pedestal, two pure white knitting needles clash with the contrast of the room. You run your hand over them; instantaneously, the knitting needles float up into the air and move into your **INVENTORY**, this game's replacement for the more complicated **SYLLADEX**.

Worry no more; you no longer have to worry about losing things that are important to you! With the trusty INVENTORY system, you can hold up to ten items at once without any sort of penalty. Only five hundred thousand swagbucks to increase your inventory size by one! Yeah, right. You put the knitting needles into your **STRIFE DECK** and hold the knitting needles, one in each hand. The wall of tile behind the pedestal slides open to reveal a vast, green expanse of grass and trees. After you walk out of the black tiled room, the room mysteriously fades. You take a glimpse of your surroundings. Forests were never really your thing even though an entire forest engulfed your house for the most part. That didn't mean that it would be smart to venture out into the forest. Gaming requires an internet connection; forests do not have internet connection. Virtual forests, however, were much different than actual forests. These forests represent no real danger to you or to your friends but they still feel so real. You swear you can feel a breeze moving across your hair and across your skin. Or, well, across the clothes you didn't notice you were wearing.

You are adorned with simple clothes that make you look youthful. A knitted top that looks like the fresh pink color of the flesh of fish was what covered your upper half. Moreover, it might resemble a faded salmon color, but you'd prefer to just say it was pink for the sake of clarity. You also have a pair of tacky, green-brown pants with stripes adorning your legs and waist. Just kidding! You wouldn't be caught dead with that sort of shit. Instead, you have on a long white skirt that drags behind you that never seems to get caught on anything that may be on the ground. The skirt looks as if it were the bottom of a ruffled Victorian era dress, covering up your legs well. Under the skirt, a pair of flat, dull-black shoes adorns your feet. Your signature black lip stick covers your lips but you cannot see that without some sort of mirror. Congratulations, you have also kept your general body frame. You are small and frail in appearance, but you know that your knitting needles still pack quite the punch and that you have no reason to worry with the knitting needles in your hands.

A prompt opens up onto your screen and your new character is left idle as one of your friends from Pesterchum shoots you a message. It's John again. You pay no mind to the fact that the game has the Pesterchum prompt opened up into it somehow and simply pay attention to the message that John sent you.

– ectoBiologist [EB] began pestering tentacleTherapist [TT] –

EB: rose, I found my game set.  
TT: It's about time, John. I became quite a bit impatient with your languor that I went ahead and started up the game. I have to say, it's quite interesting thus far.  
EB: really?  
EB: is it something we'd like?  
TT: I haven't had the grace to get all that far into the game yet.  
TT: I must say, however, that judging from the first appearance of this game, it looks to be quite an adventure.  
EB: alright, I'll start downloading it now.  
TT: Good. When you get into the game, choose the option that lets you have a unique experience. I'll see you when I see you.  
EB: bye, Rose!

– ectoBiologist [EB] ceased pestering tentacleTherapist [TT] –

Not a moment too soon either, it seems, for as soon as the web page closes out to reveal your forested surroundings, you are overwhelmed with a feeling of new perspective. What kind of perspective, exactly? Maybe perspective isn't the word you are looking for. The better word would be that you feel that someone has their eyes on you and they are staring at you through that forest that blocks every path. Well, except the path that the forest made. In a forest, anything could be anywhere. The physical construction of the forest made it possible for those who wanted to hide to be able to hide with relative ease and without any sort of despair minus the occasional big animal. Still, regardless of the eyes that were probably glancing at you, you pay no mind to them and simply decide to take your first step into the forest on your own without the aid of your friends. You are strong enough to persevere without the help of your friends for now and simply decide to be as careful as you can possibly be with your actions. Who knows what could be in this area, after all? You didn't have any sort of guide that would be able to help you with this game. Other players could easily come and ambush you if they found the time or there could possibly be some sort of boss monster lurking through and watching your movements. An anomalous experience, indeed, was what caused your interest in the forest though. A feeling of being watched could never be a good sign especially if the thing or person that was watching you did not elicit a response to your instantaneous presence.


End file.
